


Of Caterpillars and Caves

by arsenicCastellan



Category: Hiveswap
Genre: Bleeding, Blood, Crying, Head trauma, I was supposed to finish this by the 10th of January but whoops, Joey cries, Post Act 1, Rollerskating, Swearing, Troll in Charuns cave is here, cave exploring, maybe some pale xefjoey, rulusks a bit of an asshole, this is twice as long as my usual fics tho, xefros and joey both get concussions/head injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 22:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17651075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arsenicCastellan/pseuds/arsenicCastellan
Summary: Joey and Xefros take a pitstop and Joey does some exploring.-Part of a Secret Santa! (https://hiveswapsecretsanta2018.tumblr.com/)





	Of Caterpillars and Caves

Curling herself closer to the soft fur in front of her, Joey rubbed at her eyes for what seemed like the fifth time since starting the journey. She was exhausted - plain and simple. The day had been long and tiring not to mention she had left her family and Earth entirely behind with no clue when they would meet again. No clue if she would be alive to meet them again. Tears started to bead up in her eyes at the thought before raising her sleeve to wipe her eyes. As much as she wanted to tell herself that she did hate her younger brother, she did miss him deep down. He was 10! With all the monsters crawling around the place, he could get hurt and it’d be her fault for not making sure he was safe as his older sister… She let out a second sob.

She felt a small hand on her shoulder and turned around to see an equally exhausted Xefros almost leaning on her in support handing her a small piece of purple moss. Smiling at him, she brought her hand back and placed it in his. “I’m fine, Xefros.”

“but you were just crying?” She laughed and wiped the remaining tears away with her free hand.

“No silly. It’s an alien thing. I’ll be okay.” Lying through her teeth, she turned back around. Deep down she knew that Xefros had seen right through her lie but, she didn’t really want to talk about it. She couldn’t even think about it without breaking down. Xefros was already anxious enough for her to dump her emotions on him.

Leaving the main city of the planet behind, they seemed to start going through a series of cliffs and caves stacked higher than her eyes could reach with crumbling rock spilling down. Small lights twinkled throughout the cracks as she turned her head to look as they moved onward. Small caves tunnelled into some parts of the rocks and it was a relief when she looked into the darkness and nothing looked back. However, they seemed to endlessly continue with rows and rows of caves that she started to collapse into the fur of the lusus. Xefros tried to nudge her up but she couldn’t stir. Plain and simple, she was exhausted out of her mind from the day.

Out of nowhere, they came to a stop and she almost fell face first into the soft fur of the.. Lusus? Spitting out the hair in her mouth, she lifted her head up. Behind her, Xefros takes his hand off her shoulder.

“hes tired…” Xefros mumbles to himself as he jumps off with a slight wince when his feet hit the ground. Joey hops off after him, fluffing the lusus’ head one last time and letting him nuzzle into her hand.

“So are we stopping for now?” She asks tilting her head and swaying to the right. Xefros looks back and forth between the lusus and her before slowly nodding his head before shaking it. She watches him go back and forth between the two before just nodding his head and sitting beside the lusus.

“i dont want to overeXhaust him plus i don’t think the heiress will find us if we stay in the shadows of the stacks…” He points to the shadows cast down from the cliffs. “This areas mostly abandoned anyway” Joey starts to look around, slightly bored with the conversation when something takes her eye.

“What about there?” She points to a small entrance to what looks like a cave in the near distance, small rocks piled outside the entrance. Small little trinkets spilt out and she could spot small dolls, cogs and a flashlight not to dissimilar from the one she had. Xefros turns to look and seems puzzled.

“oh.. i dont know whats over there.” He rocks back and forth on his feet, uneasily picking at his elbows. Joey resists the urge to grab his hands to make him stop but that’d invade his personal space.“but you can go look if you want! i need to make sure dammeks lusus stays safe otherwise we wont have a ride and…” He pauses. “hell kill me when he gets back”

“Not on my watch he will!“ She puts one hand on his shoulder, comfortingly. "He’ll have to get through me first!” She exclaims, putting her other hand against her chest, a little too hard making her let out a small wheeze.

“are you okay joey? are you hurt?” Xefros goes straight into immediate panic mode, his hands fluttering around her body as if he wishes to help but doesn’t know where to start. She gives him a thumbs up and his arms go back to his side and judging by his face he’s embarrassed.

“I’m okay!” She wheezes, putting her hands on her hips.

Inside the cave seems way bigger and it’s stuffed full of things she’d expect to see in a yard sale. Piles of discarded items seemed to collect towards the ceiling all the way through the cave. In one area there was a small balcony that only held a toilet - or what looked like one at least. She wasn’t exactly tall enough to see. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she could see what looked like a giant deer skull but she quickly turned her head away from it. Creepy. As she moved to touch an umbrella, she saw movement to the left of her - messy hair and horns but all she sees is a small wood frame.

“Just a frame huh..” She moves to touch it but something else touches her and she screams. The messy hair she’d seen before had hidden in between the pile of junk in front of the frame and the frame itself - squashed in the small gap with their hand currently gripped tightly on her arm. They look at her panicked before gripping her other hand and she wildly kicks in front of her. “Get off me!” She screams, trying to move her hands away from them as they grip tighter and tighter. After a while of fighting, they let her go and she stumbles to the ground harshly.

“What the fuck are you doing here? You’re not C- t-that olive blood.” They’re accusatory and scramble to their feet, stumbling over their words. Scanning them over, they remind her of Xefros in a way but more scruffy and orange. They seem unsettled and jumpy as they yell at her.

“I don’t even know what an olive blood is!” It’s mostly true - she mostly just knows about rust bloods and low bloods. Olive seems reasonable. Joey folds her arms in frustration. “I was just interested in…” She pauses before gesturing around her. “This stuff. Reminds me of a garage.” They fold their arms and sigh.

“Well, you’re clearly not them then.” They turn their eyes around the cave and seem to hold on a few different items that seem to have a bit more purpose - “This stuff,” They do the finger thing. “This is their art.”

“Art?” Joey takes another look and picks up a small caterpillar statue nearby - before it starts wriggling in her hand and she yelps. “That wasn’t art.”

“No fucking duh dumbass, that was my lusus.” They pick up the caterpillar and put it on their shoulder. The lusus crawls around their shoulder and nuzzles up to their face. “The art is like,” They point to a lamp with a small beaded chain wrapped around it before being tied off with a ribbon. Kinda cool. “That’s their art. It’s kinda cool to watch them make it. Even if it’s just garbage.” They blush slightly and Joey giggles under her breath, earning her a death stare.

“Do they know you live here?” She asks as she starts rifling through the stuff in the cave, flicking through a stack of books. It’s written in the same language as the items back in Dammek’s hive.

“They don’t even know my name.” They huff and start grabbing small rocks and bashing them together.

“What is your name?” They don’t answer, but Joey decides to take the initiative. “I’m Joey!” They glance slightly at her before going back to their rocks.

“‘’m Rulusk.” They mumble, pausing slightly before narrowly missing her via flung rock. “Joeeyy, you’re weird.”

“Says the one smashing rocks together.” She resists the urge to fling the book in her hands at Rulusk but, she has morals. The book doesn’t belong to her and she doesn’t exactly want to know what the oliveblood might do if she breaks their book. “So… What do you do here?”

They look at her and laugh. “Mostly just try not to die. And sometimes mess with their stuff.” They pick up a rollerblade and run their finger across the wheel. “Okay, maybe more than sometimes.”

She puts the book down and walks over to pick up the other rollerblade and runs it over in her hands. It feels familiar in her hands and she picks at the laces.

“Are these important to them?” She asks Rulusk who shrugs. She slips her shoes off and unties the laces, before attempting to slip her foot into the rollerblade. Surprisingly it fits and she rolls her foot back and forth, watching her foot slide across the bumpy ground of the cave. It’s fun, until she slips over one to many rocks and tumbles to the ground, Rulusk very clearly laughing at her. She glares up at him but she pauses. Dear god, he looks like Jude. The messy hair the goofy smile that she watches snap back to his usual grimace.

It reminds her of the first time Jude had used roller skates. He’d borrowed hers and they’d messed around in the living room, after she’d cleared away most of the junk lying around. She had been rolling around for a bit before Jude got curious enough to come over and ask. He’d tripped and she watched him sprawl on the floor and cry for a bit before helping him. She might’ve laughed in his face for a while before helping him up. Maybe longer than a while. She was an asshole when she was younger. She wiped her eyes before getting back to her feet.

“Can’t skate?” They quip at her, holding the other one in their arms. The laces are messy and have been pulled out in weird areas. She folds her arms and walks over to them.. She kneels and unties the rollerblade before handing it to them.

“Can you?” She smirks at them as they flush and fumbles with the skates in their hands. It’s satisfying to see them messily get the skates on their feet with weak knots before gliding out to where she was with double middle fingers to her. To her surprise, they’re actually quite graceful as they skate around the small space in the cave. They try to skate back to her but finally stumble on a rock and land right in front of her. She bursts out laughing while they scramble to their feet and death glare her. They pull the skates off their feet and shove them right into her arms, making her drop one on her foot due to the surprise. It hurts as the skates are heavy, but she tries to not let it show on her face to not give them the satisfaction.

She ties them back on her feet and skates away, more focused this time. Curiosity or spite? Both. Both is good. Whoever the olive blood is, they have a good opinion of art - the objects around the cave remind her of herself. Knick knacks and cool stuff that she’d love to hoard but she always finds them missing a few days later or in the trash. It always made her upset, but maybe it was for the better. It was just junk. But whoever the olive blood was, they cared about the junk. They made art out of it! She ran her hands across a skateboard and smiled.

“Weirdo.” Rulusk comes up behind her and leans over her shoulder. They’re around the same height but she’s slightly taller with the skates on. “What’re you doing?”

“Dunno.” She skates on, going round in small circles. It's tempting to try and jump or d something fancy but she knows she’ll fall on her face again. “I'm just curious.” They shrug and follow her, letting her lead them around the cave as she explores. Then she spots it and she audibly gasps. A telescope! Or what looks like one, but whatever! She rushed as fast as she could over to it and picks it up in both her hands. It’s heavy and she narrowly misses dropping it on her foot but she watches as it tumbles to the floor and breaks. Glass goes everywhere and she nervously rolls backwards. Rulusk slides up and picks up a piece.

“Damn Joeeyy, you broke it really good.” They smirk at her and casually throw the piece to the floor. “Did you wanna look at the stars or something? Nothing good out there.” She glared at him and kicked him in the shin. What was he on - the sky on this planet was fascinating! They had two moons - or two suns - for petes sake and she could see herself looking eternally into the beautiful purple of the sky.

“The stars are beautiful you prick.” She picks up a piece of glass and sighs. “I’ve got good memories of looking at them with my brother.” Jude was always more interested in the science side of astrology and was more than certain they would find an alien someday but Joey liked how pretty the stars looked when they twinkled. Learning about constellations wasn’t igh on her list - she didn’t need the stars to be a stellar veterinarian after all - but through the stars she felt like the shaky bond she had with her brother strengthened. They could sit with the telescope and talk for hours, Joey rambling on about the prettiest ones and Jude could tell her all about it. It was the only thing they shared an interest in.

“Brother?” Rulusk looks at her confused and she feels like slapping herself. Of course. Aliens don’t have families.

“We share parents. Wait shoot, you don’t have parents either do you?” Rulusk shakes their head but she spots the caterpillar crawling around their neck as well, making a connection. “Oh wait! Parents are kinda like lusus’. Except they’re not animals.” Rulusk puts their hand to the caterpillar and it crawls onto their hand, winding itself around their fingers.

“Sixkiller is an insect you alien bitch.”

“Sixkiller?” The caterpillar perks his head up and Joey giggles. She can’t make fun of him, as much as she wants to. She’s not that much better at naming things.

“So your brother is basically just another alien under a lusus?” They look confused as they talk, running their hands softly over Sixkiller. She nods and they seem excited before coughing and looking away from her. Sixkiller crawls up their arm and she watches as they nuzzle against each other. They turn to her, flushed and quickly shove their hands behind their back. “Couldn’t imagine having to share Sixkiller with anyone. It’s helped me out of like…” They pause, choosing their words carefully. “Everything I guess. This planets a hell hole.”

“My parents…” Joey takes her own pause, fumbling over her words. “Didn’t do that at all. They were horrible.” Bluntness would do. No need to tell a stranger how alone she felt from having a dead mother and a father who was ever home and when he was, he wasn’t even a good dad. “My mum was better than my pa but she’s been dead for a decade.” They stare at her, confused.

“That last sentence made no sense Joeeyy.”

“What?”

“Mum, pa, dead, decade - the fuck?” Joey facepalms. Dammit, she has to explain everything, doesn’t she.

“Mum and pa are my parents, decade is 10 years-” They still have a confused look on their face. “You don’t have years?” They shake their head and Joey stomps her foot in frustration. “Time?”

“No fucking shit we have time. Otherwise I’d be born and culled at the same time.”

“Culled?” They both glare at each other, frustrated with the language barrier - word barrier actually. It’d be harder if they were talking Russian, so it was lucky the only thing they needed t translate were different words.

“Culled is when you bleed and don’t wake up.”

“That’s what happened with my mum.” She speaks slowly and softly, talking to herself. It wasn’t like her to be this emotionally open with people, especially not strangers. But she couldn’t stop herself now and the emotions crawled out of their little hole to plant themselves in her brain. “S-she, she die-died. She got c..” She falls to her knees and cries her heart out. “Mum…” The words fall out her throat and her feet hurt from her position. But she feels like she can’t move. All her limbs feel frozen and all she can do is cry and reminisce. How did it get to here from just talking about death?

There’s something on the back of her head and she feels like screaming. But screaming would take effort that her body seems to only put towards crying. Then soft comforting words come and she sees Sixkiller out the corner of her crawling over onto her face, rubbing against her nose. Against her skin, it’s a stark white. Insects always creeped her out but she feels her breath pause as it crawls around her face. Rulusk in the corner of her vision is freaking out - something she didn’t expect.

“Joeey are you okay? Should I apologise? Fuck! Are you okay?” They’re panicking and she can feel them shaking her shoulder and she starts laughing. It feels croaky and painful but she prefers it over the sound of her shaking and crying. “Is that a good sound?”

“I don’t know! I’m scared out of my mind right now!” Joey chokes through her tears and rubs her eyes. Sixkiller is still crawling across her face and it feels weird. But it distracts her from how badly her chest hurts. She slowly moves her feet to a more comfortable position and rubs her eyes again. “I-I miss my, my mum. I miss her so, so, so fuck-fucking much!” Rulusk crushes her with a hug and they lean into each other, crying.

Her mother had gotten her a book of veterinary for her fourth birthday - the last gift she’d ever gotten. The memory of it was ingrained in her brain, the last thing she had in common with her mother before she died, leaving Joey alone with her baby brother and absent father. Leaving Joey all alone, trying her best to crawl through the days. She’d never fully understood the book at four - which was a strange gift for a four-year-old now she thought about it - but the book had changed her life. Maybe she was only so attached to it because of the memories behind it, but either way, it had given her hope. She’d read it more times than she could count and when she was sad, it was a nice thing to go back to. But the book wasn’t here. Just her, Rulusk, Sixkiller and -

“joey?” Oh fuck. She looks over to the direction of the voice and she can see Xefros near the entrance of the cave, nervously peaking in. Dammek’s lusus presumably where they’d left it. He walks in closer,“youve been in here for a while.” Xefros peaks into the cave and his eyes go wild when he spots her. “joey! oh my god what happened? jm so sorry i shouldnt have abandoned you!” Xefros rushes over and glances briefly at Rulusk with worry in his eyes. “is she okay?”

“I am not okay!” Joey yells loudly and pulls her legs in front of her. “I am so not okay right now!” She pulls the skates off and chucks them to the side, hearing them clang against the piles of trash before settling against the cave floor. “I miss my mum, Xefros.”

"whats a mum?” He asks and she slams her head backwards in frustration. It hurts like a bitch but damn did it look cool. The headache isn't cool either nor is whatever's dripping down her neck. “nevermind are you okay?!” He’s shaking her and she smiles at him lazily with a thumbs up.

“I’m good Xeffy.” She slurs before clutching her head and groaning. Her headache feels more like a migraine at this point from how much it hurts. “Oh geez my head!”

“joey! you could injure yourself or worse! please don’t do th-” Xefros tries pulling her to her feet but he doesn’t expect her weight and she drags him straight back down to the floor, making his head bang against it. They collapse against each other and Joey feels her vision blur, slowly adjusting. Her head is rested right against his chin and she scrambles to her knees. Awkward.

“Ironic” She mutters under her breath, before the panic sets in as she rolls off him and shakes his shoulder. He doesn’t stir and she starts to freak out more. “Xefros? You good?” Her voice slowly rises and she starts to slap his face. As she starts to consider something more extreme, Xefros slowly opens his eyes and stares at her.

“that wasss... a baaaadddd idea” He slurs before collapsing again. With all her strength, she slaps him and he stirs awake. “joey?”

“I’m here.” She hugs him tightly, slowly moving her hands from his back to the back of his head. Her fingers lightly touch the spot and she can feel the blood almost immediately. Internally preparing herself, she lifts her other hand to feel the back of her own neck and winces. Lifting it away, her hand feels more sticky and bloody in general. Even though he’s right in front of her, her vision of Xefros blurs as she shakily returns her hand back to her front. “Xef?”

“joey.” He murmurs back to her and slowly rises up. They hug again, her bloody hands getting on his shirt. If he notices it, he doesn't comment on it as they embrace again.

“Um.” In the entrance of the cave is a sudden pile of art/trash, behind it a confused troll wearing a green hat with a low and gravelly voice. They pause, looking over them Joey can feel Xefros trying to shrink into himself. Rulusk slowly walks into her vision as they look around panicked. She tries to whisper to them before they dive into a pile of garbage, before peeking their head up, Sixkiller crawling across their eyebrows. “Am I high?” They ask. They shrug and pick up the pile again. It’s quite slow, as they pick everything up in slow motions, before staggering towards her and Xefros. They put the items down as they walk - a lace next to the skates she abandoned and a plank next to the frame she’d met Rulusk by. Finally, they come up to her and Xefros and sit down next to them.

“Hi.” She waves to them. They slowly blink at her and wave before turning over to Xefros and placing their gloved hand on the back of his neck. He shivers under their touch and they pull their hand away, freaked out from the sudden emotion on their face.

“Thats…” They start, placing a finger under their chin, the dark red standing out against the grey. “A lot of blood.” She’s noticed, most of their actions are slow, controlled. It creeps her out in a way. They reach out again and slowly lift his hair up at the base of his neck and she sees them wince. “..Oh.” They turn to her and reach their hand out but she slaps it back. They snap back and hastily look away. Their eyes landed on Rulusk and she sees their eyes narrow. In return, Rulusk raises their middle fingers and sinks even lower to which the troll rolls their eyes and turns back to her. They point to Rulusk and sigh. “I dunno… What's their deal..” They shrug and lean their head on their shoulder. “Are you?” They lean their head on their other shoulder. “Okay?” They lift their hands towards the back of her head and she hastily nods her head as she crawls backwards, hitting her head on the pile of trash behind her.

“No I’m not.” She puts a hand behind her head and the wound feels like it was reopened due to the blood, prompting her to show the bloody hand to the troll who clambers to their feet and walks to one of the piles they’d been to earlier, pulling out some sort of moss and ribbon. They turn back to her and gesture to it. When she doesn't say anything they sigh and explain it verbally. “For your head.” Looking over to Xefros, she nudges his shoulder.

“itll help joey” He smiles at her and gestures the troll over. They walk back over and drop the moss and ribbon to one side - the squelching noise the moss makes when it drops making her nervous for it to be put on her exposed wound. But from her veterinary knowledge, the moss and ribbon resemble an earth plaster and a plaster would help a head wound. It didn’t seem to big for it not to be effective after all. They seem to know what to do as they pick u the moss and spread it across her wound, discarding one of their gloves to do so. As they apply the moss, the picks up the glove and examines it. Sturdy fabric with a small label written in a scrawl reminiscent of Jude’s handwriting. Except somehow worse, but she’d never mention it to Jude if she got home. Then she feels a hand over hers, turning around to see the troll. She lets it go and they place it next to the ribbon, which they pick up.

“..Don’t touch my glove..” They murmur as they work on applying the ribbon to her neck. It’s cold and she shivers as its placed on a layer by layer. Eventually, it’s over and they turn Xefros to repeat the same thing. Touching her neck, the ribbon almost seamlessly merges with her skin and the pain has nulled by a good bit. Definitely not a human bandage, but she wishes it was. This kind of technology would be amazing on earth.

“Hey” The troll looks over to her as they wipe blood on their bandana. She spots an olive symbol on it and her heart stops. Shoot, it’s the olive blood Rulusk had been going on about. “What’s your name? I’m Joey.” Might as well be polite as the troll looks from Xefros to her and back, before shrugging and pointing to where Rulusk had disappeared from.

“Who’s that first?” Rulusk peaks their head up again with Sixkiller directly against their eyebrows and the troll croaks a laugh, making Rulusk blush. Aww.

“Sixkiller.” She replies and Sixkiller wiggles in response, climbing onto one of Rulusk’s horns. The troll shakes their head and points again.

“Not Six.. I know Six.. .. Troll.” Weird how they know who Sixkiller is and not Rulusk but she doesn't comment on it. They enunciate each word even slower than usual and Rulusk slowly ducks their head from sight as the troll keeps direct eye contact with them.

“Oh that's Rulusk!” Rulusk immediately comes back up to throw a stone at her but the troll deflects it by sticking their arm out and swatting it back at them.

“Thanks..” They respond to her, going back to applying the moss to Xefros. After they finish, they pick up the ribbon before dropping it. “Oh.” They pick it back up and turn to her with a small grin. A small tooth peaks up, carnivorous from the point. “‘..’m Charun.” After that, Charun turns back to applying the ribbon to Xefros who gives her a thumbs up. It only takes a few minutes for them to finish up before they get to their feet and walk over to where Rulusk was. She rushes over to Xefros and examines his wound, neatening up the ribbon in the places where she can see the purple of the moss or worse the red of his blood. A good opportunity to put some of her veterinary skills to the test, the most practice at home would be her own small injuries, Jude’s constant bruised knees and Tesseract who got injured the least, unfortunately. Well more, fortunately as she loved Tesseract and her floppy ears. Oh damn, she’d forgotten about Tesseract all alone in her dog house. Would Jude take care of her? Or have the monsters gotten her already… No, she pushed her emotions back. She didn’t want to start crying again. Emotions could go away for today.

“Xefros?” Xefros turns around and she engulfs him in a second hug. “Ready to leave?” He nods and gets to his feet. They turn to their host and her face pales as they have Rulusk’s foot in their hand, holding them upside down with Sixkiller on their hat, as they mumble words about not coming into their cave again. Rulusk is screaming while Charun has an impressive poker face as Sixkiller starts to crawl around their horns. “Um Charun?” They tilt their head and lift Rulusk a bit higher. “We’re gonna leave, now.” They nod and turn Rulusk right way up before dropping them who yelps. As they walk out she can feel Rulusk glaring at her to which she glares back. Then she trips and falls flat on her face to which she can hear their haughty laugh. All her sympathy vanished as she clambers to her knees and walks away. Charun waves her away while Rulusk gives her the middle finger with one hand and tries to get her with the other. Walking Xefros to the entrance, she waves him to carry on while she turns back and punches Rulusk right in the face, before running back out.

Worth it, even if she has to avoid tripping over their extended leg on the way out.

**Author's Note:**

> Rulusk Sylvan is a mutant bronze blood that’s the troll hiding in Charun’s cave. Them and Charun don’t have a good relationship. They’re a jerk but have like 1% good heart. Also their lusus was gonna have a normal name but there’s this one character in the book I was reading Henry Sixkiller and I had to. He stuck a fork in a toaster, which is lame in a book where a girl died by choking on a bird and a guy fell of a motercycle and got half his skin ripped off.


End file.
